Journal of religious culture = Journal für Religionskultur
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Part of Periodical (61)
Language
- English (61) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (61) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (61)
Keywords
- Central Asia (1)
- Islam (1)
- Mahmud II (1)
- Ottomans reforms (1)
- Soviet Islam (1)
- Soviet Ulama (1)
- Westernization (1)
- modernization (1)
- the ulama (1)
Institute
- Institut für Wissenschaftliche Irenik (61) (remove)
16
Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) and Vishvambhara Mishra (1486 - 1533), known as Shri Krishna Caitanya, have been the outstanding representatives of the great west-eastern religious revolution which shattered the hearts of their societies in the 16th century. They were the spiritual revolutionaries of the modern times. The question may very well be raised if and how these two religious reformers on the edge of modern age share theological commonness, even though they lived wide apart and certainly did not know of each other. We will see: Both Martin Luther and Shri Krishna Caitanya have taught the un-conditioned, Free Love viz. Bhakti. Even if they did it in the tradition of the theological context they were born in they produced a new common setting of religion: the destruction of meritoricly bound religion and its substitution by free religion. The worship of God or charity were no more a mean for but the final state of salvation. Their interpretation of this revolutionary religion has lost nothing of its existen-tial meaning, even though having been twisted often enough to indiscernibility or even to the complete opposite - up to the present day. ...
15 b
The Hindu Buddha according to the theology of the Bengali Vaishnava Acharya Bhaktivedanta Swami
(1999)
In the broad Indian religious culture we find two basic concepts of the inner structure of the Holy. The Advaita religion believes in the 'not-two' will say absolute 'oneness' of the ultimate reality. The Dvaita religion yet believes in 'two' will say the dual structure of the whole. Nevertheless, the latter one is no radical dualism because it recognises nothing to be outside the last reality. It is a kind of 'dualist monism' and insofar fundamentally different to West Asian and European moderate or radical dualism. The Dvaita religion experiences the inner structure of the Holy as everlasting dynamic relation of the whole and its parts. As a rule, the representation of the whole is the personal God, mostly called Bhagavan. The representations of the parts are the soul or jivas. Mostly following the idea the whole being a personal God the Dvaita religion is something like theism; yet, it is an Indian or Hindu theism teaching that the Godhead comprises within herself souls and matter, too. By the way, many of the jivas aren't conscious of their role within the Holy. They erroneously take themselves for empty monads and believe that they would get their realisation only by implementing themselves with 'matter'. Experiencing in this concern the uselessness of matter, the maya energy of the Godhead, they can get the true consciousness of their role as divine co-players in the inner divine play or lila. ...
14
This study is obliged to the "Marburg School of the Science of Religions" (R. Otto, H. Frick, K. Goldammer, E. Benz). The methodological concept follows the comparison of religions, as it is classically demonstrated by R. Otto in his work about "West-östliche Mystik"[1] concern-ing the contrasting of Shankara and Meister Eckhart. That the comparison of the figures of the masters which is practised in this school may yield good results is also proved by G. Mensching, Otto's disciple in Bonn, in his book on "Buddha und Christus - ein Vergleich"[2] and H. Frick, Otto's successor on the Marburg chair in Systematic Theology, in his early trea-tise upon "Ghazalis Selbstbiographie. Ein Vergleich mit Augustins Konfessionen"[3][4]. Spe-cial emphasis should be given to the attempt of F. Heiler who as early as in 1918 contrasts Buddha as a "master of contemplation" to Jesus as a "master of prayer" in his work "Die bud-dhistische Versenkung"[5]. All the mentioned attempts are based on the eminent enquiries in the field of the common history of religions and the psychology of religion as R. Otto's "Das Heilige" [6] and F. Heiler's "Das Gebet"[7]. Worth mentioning is also the comprehensive study of the Marburg church historian and distinguished authority of the Asian religious world, E. Benz, about "Die Vision"[8]. Benz, also a disciple of R. Otto, was a famous re-searcher of mysticism and spiritualism as well (Joachim of Floris, J. Böhme, E. Swedenborg). ...
12b
That God has to become man in order to reveal the being of God to mankind is a belief not only held by Christianity. In Bhagavata Purana, one of the holy scriptures of Hinduism, God Vishnu speaks the sentence quoted above when he is incarnated as Krishna. In a world getting ever smaller, awareness of other religions gains more and more importance. It is my purpose to show what contribution the theological field I represent, ecclesiastical history or historical theology,1 may make towards getting to know other religions and seeking dialogue with them. I will use the worship of Krishna in the following text to exemplify my propositions. My explanations are set out in five parts: (I) two traditions of how God became man; (II) the problem and purpose of inter-religious encounter; (III) historical theology as history; (IV) historical theology as theology; (V) thoughts about dialogue with other religions as an encounter between two things of comparable significance.
11
In Germany, theological studies on the Hindu religion of the International Soci-ety of Krishna Consciousness and its Vaishnava theology are still only just be-ginning. Previously this relevant task was left mostly to religio-political polemics, resulting in a politically highly problematic research deficit which seriously impeded the necessary social and clerical confrontation with these new religious impulses in the German society. But theological passiveness and polemic activ-ism actually reduce the chances for religiously relevant analyses and socially acceptable solutions of philosophical and spiritual problems. Ignorance rather than dialogue, and polemics inimical to dialogue, have directly or indirectly stabilised the destructive forces in the new religious communities for decades, and consequently favoured a diminution and isolation of reformative tendencies. Due to an increasing respect for the freedom of religion as a human right, the profane alliance of the aggressive forces of both sides has recently ended, and a public, and differentiating, discussion of participants and persons concerned has cautiously started, reinforcing a freer and more competent inter-civil dialogue about spiritual affairs. Clear signs may be seen, not only of a reform within the ISKCON religion, but also in the churches setting about discussing the multi-religious topic on a higher level. A so-called broader theological research, partly transcending the border-lines of Christianity, is developing in the universities, and the free science of religion in Germany is receiving a surprising impetus. It was the suppression of the science of religion that had been impeding a constructive discussion in society of the new religious situation in Germany. The rejection of an inter-civil dialogue of spiritual affairs, however, contradicts an effective democracy which subsists on the continuous confrontation of free citizens with their common culture, especially with the ultimate questions of human existence. But the success of this inter-civil confrontation is solely guaranteed if the participants in the dialogue respect their mutual freedom as citizens and take the mutual dialogue among citizens for granted. This is the only way to attain a reasonable range of solutions concerning the ends of our existence and its proper means. As a contribution to this inter-civil dialogue a theological analysis is to be made of the religious culture practised by citizens of this country engaged in the ISK-CON religion and from there desiring to exert an impact on our civil culture. I. Subject and Aim of Diacritical Theology Because of the diffuse understanding of theology it is necessary to explain what it is, where it should and should not be engaged. Theology is not a religious ideology of a particular community that argues the interests of social organisations, but a universal science. It is not limited to a certain religious culture or form of society but is committed to its specific subject (1). Such an autonomous theology has the task of discrimen inter legem et evangelium—the diacritical analysis of Law and Gospel according to the description of its function by Martin Luther. We will follow these basic categories of diacritical theology and explain them here (2).
10
As both time and space at hand for this presentation is limited, therefore instead of a longer introductory note, here a move is made to deal with the given subject straight. In the second section the background both historical and theological is discussed, which win state the position of the inter-religious dialogue in India. The third section will deal with the involvement and experiences of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in the field of inter-religious dialogue. The fourth section deals with other living religions specially Islam. Finally in section five concluding remarks are given in the form of reflections and in section six, the notes and references are listed.
9
In recent years the role of 'religion' has generally been considered in the negative term, specially in India. Today, it may be a Kashmir or Punjab problem in North India, but all such problems are attributed to 'religion'. But that is when 'religion' is used at the higher level either by a state or sub-state, or by larger religious communities to protect their special interests. One such good example is of the Babri-Ramjanambhoomi conflict, over a Mosque and Temple, between the two larger communities of India, namely the Muslims and the Hindus. A recent film 'Bombay' in Hindi has well projected this problem from this angle. But then there is also the 'religion' of people, which operates at the lower or local levels, the level of ordinary people, where it plays the role of establishing relations, more correctly it helps building a larger community positively. This lecture deals with the latter form or level of religion. This lecture is based upon the actual case studies. Though these case studies belong to North West India, yet the application of these are applicable generally to the rest of India also. For the sake of convenience this lecture is divided into two parts. In part one, two cases, one from rural and the other from urban areas, dealing with the theme of 'relations in religion' are given, and in part two, some comments, along with a few views of others are offered, and at the end, in the form of concluding remarks a summary of the whole lecture is given.
6
The Christian culture experienced a deep-going change with the uprising of the Civil Society ("Bürgerliche Gesellschaft"), the industrialization of economic production, the urbanization of life-style and the individualization of religiosity in the 19th century. The Christian formation of inner- and outer-world in those days became obsolete. From this conflict the civil or modern Christianity origi-nated. In a painful changing process most of the people of this new society have newly interpreted religion, moral and ritual of traditional Christianity and cre-ated to their new conditions of life new institutional forms of transmission and realization of Christian cultural heritage. Under the recourse of the Reformato-rian heritage the modern Christianity developed the religious-moral doctrine: A true Christian is before all a citizen who is living in the midst of the world self-determinate and socially engaged fulfilling all his worldly duties; the modern Christian has to get this motivation for a world-oriented existence on his own responsibility because religion is not restricted anymore. ...
5 b
Modern Hindus use the term 'Hindu' in a positive sense. It is no more a derogatory appellation used by foreigners and oppressors, but a powerful self chosen name. The historically most valid ideologue of that positive Hindu understanding is Narendra Nath Datta (1863-1902). This highly talented son of a regarded lawyer family in Calcutta became disciple of Ramakrishna, the flaming son and priest of the goddess Kali and greatest religious virtuoso in the 19th century. Becoming a sannyasin Narendra received the title and name Swami Vivekananda; after the death of his master he set up the famous Ramakrishna Order. ...
4
Many religious people believe that the integration of world society is of the greatest importance for mankind. They think that the religions of the world should strive to attain this goal through multi-religious agreement, through inter-religious dialogue, even through the merger of their organisations. Religious unification is supposed to be an effective instrument to encourage world society and to guarantee social peace. Religious differentiation, however, is dubious to these people. It would lead to social splintering and would ultimately be anti-social and extremely dangerous, especially to the economic unification of the world. The people who advocate religious unification look upon the progressing cultural, political and economic unification of the world as a model for religious unity. Therefore, many religious people believe that a unified global religion, or at least a union of world religions, should be implemented today. Options of this kind, however, are utopian in the extreme - confronting the ever-expanding conflicts between the established international religious organisations. Pragmatists who espouse the doctrine of religious unification therefore propagate the following fundamental tenets: 1. All religious people believe in the same god or whatever the ultimate reality may be called. 2. Each religion may believe in the ultimate reality in its own way. 3. No religious community is allowed to make converts. 4. Everybody should remain in his original religious community forever. These tenets are in reality nothing but a kind of a cartel agreement. And this agreement should establish an inter-religious combine, which had to stop competition between the religious organisations and to prevent the individual to leave his original religion. The basic supposition of this concept, however, is that religion today has mainly to be seen as an organised, congregational and institutionalised one. And because of this historical error they are only interested to keep the status quo of the established religious organisations. The propagation of that cartel agreement is rooted in the fear, that the established religions wouldn't survive the radical religious revolution at the end of the 20th century.